Ride with Fire this Canada Day!

Charity bike ride returns to raise money for Boots on the Ground

By Casandra Turnbull

If you’re looking for a way to keep active over the long weekend, while supporting a great cause, you might want to consider the 2nd Annual Ride with Fire event Spanning a 100 km loop, Ride with Fire takes cyclists of all skill levels and ages, through all eight fire stations. At each stop, riders can choose to end the race or carry on to the next station.

“Registration definitely exceeded my expectations,” said Mark Stouffer, after last year’s successful inaugural event. “The generosity of people who couldn’t ride but still donated directly to Boots on the Ground through this event, makes me proud to be a Canadian,” he added. Stouffer is the man behind Ride-withFire. He told the Paris Independent how the event came to life

After taking up cycling as a hobby in 2020, he began to push himself to ride greater distances, and while doing so he started to think about destinations

“As a County of Brant firefighter, I started to simply ride from one station to another and back again. Then it hit me, what is the distance, if I ride past all eight stations?” Stouffer said With the wheels in motion, figuratively and literally, he began mapping out the routes, with distance and safety in mind. As it turns out, the distance between all eight County stations is 100 kilometres. With that, an idea was born

With the routes in place, Stouffer then decided on a charity: Boots on the

Ground, an anonymous helpline that provides confidential peer support to First Responders across Ontario, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week The charitable organization is completely run and staffed by volunteers. It supports police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, corrections officers and emergency dispatch operators. Even though the Ride-withFire has an underlining firefighting theme, additional first responders, the OPP and EMS, will be on hand to display their vehicles and answer questions.

Riders will select their starting point when they register There will be a shotgun start at your selected station at 7 am sharp. Stouffer hopes by starting early, riders will be out of the heat by lunch Interested riders are encouraged to register in advance online.